8th grade made these awesome Clay masks!! Students first learned about Pop Artist Wayne Thiebaud and his paintings of everyday objects, especially the desserts. Then they used clay slab building to make these boxes (the tops are lids) of cake or pie.
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I've done this project with the students every semester and the finished results get better every time!! We study the art of Pop Artist Roy Lichtenstein and his Ben-Day dot method. The students then take a picture of themselves and trace it onto another paper to create a "cartoony" look. Then they add dots to imitate Roy's comic book style. Kids LOVE Clay!! 8th Grade: Tikis 8th Graders learned a little about Polynesian and Hawaiian culture, specifically why they make Tiki masks, and then made their own! I also showed the 8th Grade students how to use the potter's wheel and let any who wanted to give it a try have a go at it!! One boy in particular amazed me at how quickly he caught on, a natural! Future potter perhaps? ; ) 7th Grade Cake/Pie Boxes The 7th Grade students did a Pop Art Unit and learned about artist Wayne Thiebaud, known for his paintings of everyday object like cake and pie. Using a template the students rolled out slabs of clay and cut pieces to assemble for their cake or pie boxes. 6th Grade Double Pinch Pot Animals I let the 6th Grade basically make any animal they wanted, as long at the body was made of two pinch pots put together. They got so creative with this!! Many decided to make theirs into coin banks. 5th Grade Portrait Tiles Since I only see the 5th graders about once a week, we needed a quick clay project so the clay wouldn't dry out. So I introduced students to Pop Artist Andy Warhol, they took a picture of themselves on their laptops, rolled out a slab of clay and transferred the photo to the clay. After firing the clay, the students used bright colors like Warhol's paintings to color their face in. We had more issues with this project than I expected, so I don't know if I will do the project again. However, there were some really good finished products. (Here is the video that inspired this project): 8th Grade African Masks Students focused on art history and culture towards the end of the year. They learned about African culture and the function/purpose of masks. They needed to use xacto knives and the hot glue gun safely to put their cardboard masks together. Then they painted their masks with earth tones and could add embellishments like yarn, beads, shells, etc. 6th Grade Jungle CollagesThis seemed like a never ending project! We began by working together to paint textured blue-greens and yellow-greens to use later for the plants. Next, they learned about artist Henri Rousseau and created their own jungles with cut pieces of the painted paper. 7th Grade Pop Art Portraits Students learned about artist Roy Lichtenstein to inspire their comical portraits. They had to take a picture of themselves on their laptops and then transfer the image with graphite paper, making their lines thick and bold. Using markers or paint, students imitated Roy's ben-day dot style for a cartoon effect. 8th Grade Egyptian Metal Art First, students made their own hieroglyphics and learned about different characteristic of Ancient Egyptian art. They had to draw a face in profile view with a crown and pectoral decorations commonly worn by the ancient Pharaohs. Similar to ancient relief sculptures on stone, students had to use metal tooling techniques to make some parts of their design pop out. 7th Grade Bad Hair Day Portraits We began this drawing by learning about facial proportions in order to draw a portrait with correct measurements. It cracks me up how much it surprises students that the eyes are in the center of the head because they've always drawn them too high...or how if you get the "eye-width" right, you can line up the rest of the face. Then students filled in their hair with wacky zentangle lines and patterns. Some girls were reluctant to do this, but discovered that their portraits were much more fun and creative when they were done. :) 5th Grade Aboriginal Lizards With fields tips and snow days, one of the 5th grade sections ended up with 2 or 3 more days than the other section. So students learned a bit about the Australian Aboriginal people and their art. They drew lizards and then used earth tones to paint them. We even crumpled the paper so it would be like painting on bark. I wish we would have had at least one more day for this project, but we just ran out of time. 6th Grade Contour Line Portraits This was another quick end-of-the-year project. Students took pictures of themselves and had to trace the lines of the image onto plastic acetate with permanent marker (which is trickier than it sounds). For a background, the students made wet on wet watercolor paintings. 8th Grade Popsicle Stick Projects This was an ongoing project throughout the semester. If a student finished something early, they could keep building. There are some students that always finish super fast, while others take forever to finish a project. I have learned how important it is to have something for them to do during the in-between time. Most students just made a simple box, but there were some that worked in groups to create amazing sculptures! A group of boys that made boats and at the end of the year we filled the sink with water to see how long they would float, and determined a winner. Mandala Collaborative Project Because students at BCLUW don't have art class from August through January, the hallway displays are usually blank. So, I had each student make a small square mandala to put together for a collaborative hall display that will go up when school starts...to add some color to the halls. It looked like a quilt when finished! Wow! Time is going by fast! I haven't done a very good job of updating what we are doing in class on here...so I'll try to write a brief recap. 6th Grade: After our One Point Perspective project, the students spent a week learning about "Atmospheric Perspective". This is a fancy term for another technique artists use to create the illusion of space, especially in landscape drawings and paintings. Students viewed pictures of different kinds of landscapes and we discussed how mountains in the distance appear faded and different colors because of how much "atmosphere" is between us and those mountains. Next the students practiced mixing paint to make Tints and Shades with one pure color, black, and white. Then they started painting in their landscapes using a value scale (light to dark) to show that what is farther away appears to fade into the distance. Most students decided to use a Hilly or Mountainous landscape, while some created Seascapes or Cityscapes. 7th Grade: Since the last update, 7th grade have completed two projects.
After practicing sketching their animals, they transferred their drawing onto a linoleum block and I demonstrated how to carve out the design with special linoleum cutters. They (especially the boys) LOVED this part! After all their lines were cut out, they used rollers to apply a thin layer of water soluble ink and make a print onto paper. I had stations with different colors set up around the room for them to try out a few different colors. Their finished prints turned out really cool and the students were super excited to take home their linoleum block. 8th Grade: These students have completed a smorgasbord of projects because they keep flying through all the things I plan for them!
Graphic Design Unit:
If you would like to see the Intro PwrPt I showed, click here
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